Distribution of false information discrediting the honor and dignity of the person or the company under the U.S. Legislation

Introduction: the article is devoted to the study of the main provisions of the legislative regulation of mechanisms for protecting business reputation in the United States To this end, the author is studying the legal nature of defamation, which is directly related to the business reputation, namely, its protection. Using the methods of scientific knowledge, first of all, the method of systemic and comparative analysis, the author identifies the conditions for the occurrence of liability for the dissemination of defamatory information under US law. Results indicate that English law had a huge impact on the legal regulation of defamation in the United States; despite the existence of legal regulation of the analyzed legal phenomenon in the legislation of each state, the author outlines the general conditions of responsibility for the dissemination of false information; defamation is a civil offense; The basic principle on which the legal regulation of defamation is based is the priority of the right to freedom of speech over the right to protection of honor, dignity and reputation. Conclusions: the author made a conclusion on a sufficiently detailed and balanced legal regulation of defamation in the United States, and on the need for the reception of a number of provisions in Russian legislation, which has quite a few gaps in creating an effective mechanism for protecting business reputation.